Tag Archive for 'Callebaut'

Report: The 2nd Choqoa Tasting Event

Published on December 11, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Tastings & Events. 0 Comments Tags: Amano, Austria, Bonnat, Bouga, Callebaut, Dominican Republic, Domori, Ecuador, event, Francois Pralus, Guanaja, Indonesia, Madagascar, Michel Cluizel, Nicaragua, Pacari, Pralus, tasting, Valrhona, Venezuela, Zotter.

The second ‘official’ Choqoa Tasting event yesterday in Antwerp was a great fun chocolate celebration. We were with a group of 16 enthusiast people; friends bringing their own friends, and even an older couple who got the Tasting Event as a birthday gift from their daughter: what a great surprise! And also my chocolate buddy Sofie ‘Chocolaterie’ from Barry Callebaut, happily joined this event.

Learnings from previous sessions made me make a selection with bigger care and offer a broader variety of cacao experiences. I also therefore bought some Domori and found myself a bunch of bars I hadn’t taste myself yet: Zotter, Pacari, and Bouga.
I started with a small introduction into cacao trees and pods, the bean-to-bar process, and to all delight Sofie from Callebaut passionately helped explain into detail the various steps, with good interaction from the crowd.

Off to the tasting! I projected the Amano tasting wheel in the screen to give guidance to the tasting, and people really enjoyed discovering such a chocolate sensations. This time I had a good variety that really added value to the tasting experience and was more than appreciated. It was pleasurable to see people taking chocolate to the next level! Everybody shared his impressions so the atmosphere was pretty comfortable. Halfway already people giggled and said they started to feel the chocolate raising to their brain, giving them the cacao ‘high’ Yes it’s positive magic.

All in all we had 10 different chocolates, list & details are below, and everybody really said to have enjoyed, and even would return another time! Everybody happily took their 2 included bars home, bought some more even to continue sharing the passion.
I’m already looking forward to the next event, you’re all invited to join Choqoa!

Read on for details of all the tasted bars!

Continue reading ‘Report: The 2nd Choqoa Tasting Event’

Choqoa goes tasting in London, meeting up in Paris next

Published on September 10, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Trips. 2 Comments Tags: Academy of Chocolate, Callebaut, London, Paris, Salon du Chocolat, tasting.

It’s going to be exciting times the coming weeks with 2 special chocolate events marked in my agenda. While I’m putting all the pieces of the Choqoa puzzle together, these 2 activities will surely bring a lot of further inspiration.

First of all I’m going to London end of the month to participate in a chocolate tasting event, organised by the people behind SeventyPercent.com. It is one of my favorite websites about cacao, with a great forum that had me learn a lot. Editor Martin Christy is also founding member of the UK Academy of Chocolate (and just like me he’s also working in the Web industry), so I’m looking forward to be in good company

Second milestone event will be the 2009 Salon du Chocolat in Paris. One year ago, going to this Mekka for chocolate lovers made me really start exploring how I could turn my passion into a passion driven ‘business’. One year later, I’m going again, but with a different attitude, and much more knowledge and focused plans.
My friends from Callebaut will also be there, I’m looking forward to confirm contacts I’m currently networking with, and maybe my Choqoa Twitter activity even can also result in a TweetUp at the Salon. The only question will be wether US brands will fly over too…

A lot of stories to bring back soon, for sure, and more than probably it will be a very yummy edible story for a lot of you too!

Feel free to follow me on Twitter.com/Choqoa too and join the Choqoa Facebook FanPage.

Pierre Hermé, Porcelana and Valrhona

Published on August 5, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: Amedei, Belcolade, Callebaut, Galler, La Maison du Chocolat, Pierre Hermé, Porcelana, Valrhona.

If you really get into the sources and processes of the chocolate you eat, you’ll be likely to start feeling the tension between chocolate farm, manufacturers, and ‘chocolatiers’. To me it somehow became a playfull quest to figure out wether a ‘chocolatier’ works with his own bean-to-bar process (like Amedei, Bonnat etc) or if he is ‘merely’ a ‘pralinier’ who buys source material from e.g. Callebaut or Belcolade (eg Dominique Persoone). There’s nothing wrong with the latter, except off course if they’re trying to hide too hard. Like where would La Maison Du Chocolat buy theirs? I know where Galler is buying most of theirs

The other time when I was in Paris I finally had the time to visit the small shop of Pierre Hermé at Rive Gauche, St Germain. It was at that time when I got intrigued by hunting down what chocolate these world class chocolatiers were actually using. Previous efforts trying to demistify a Callebaut, Belcolade or Chocovic in chocolatier stores got me angry faces more than once
People queueing outside the street made clear where the action was. The store was looking gorgeous: small, clean, modern with a lot of sobrely designed wood putting all of the macarons and chocolate creations right in the centre of your attention. What caught my attention really were the prices! I don’t even dare to mention some of the ganache and truffles! On the shelves I spotted some bars including a “Origine Porcelana”, priced at a fat 10€. Wow, that is what I’d start to call really expensive stuff! I’ve bought Amedei at that price knowing that it was worth it, but here it was an investment for the truth. Turning towards a employee asking what the bar was made of, to my pleasant suprise he instantly revealed it was from Valrhona. I was struck by his open attitude as if he was used to answer the question. It even made me buy the overpriced Porcelana and some other bars to check out this Valrhona creation.

I don’t know what Hermé or Valrhona did wiht the bar, but I frankly was dissappointed. Where’s the taste gone, even the pacaking was rather cheap, with a bar coming wrapped in plastic foil. I had tasted much better Valrhona from their Plantation series in 2005 and 2006, but this one didn’t even come close to Porcelana As Magritte would say: ‘This is not a chocolate bar’. Lesson learned: if you want bars, buy bars from passionate bean-to-bar manufacturers.

What is Belgian Chocolate anyway? Pt.1

Published on November 10, 2008 in On Chocolate & Cacao. 0 Comments Tags: Belgium, Berwaerts, Brussels, Callebaut, Congo, Côte d'Or, de Beukelaere, Jaques, Meurisse, Neuhaus.

“Belgian Chocolate”, what is it anyway? I would like to start a few posts on this to many a magic and indulgent combination of words.
Sure our country has a bespoken heritage and history when it comes to chocolate, but why really is Belgian Style different from other countries? I think there are 2 things that need some explanation: what is that Belgian heritage about and what should the word ‘chocolate’ cover. Already the word “chocolates” leads to a lot of confusion. Chocolates, chocolate, confections and pralines are really not the same, though in English I feel these subtle differences aren’t always put clear. But let’s keep that for later and focus on Belgium.

How Belgium became ‘Chocolatic’

The Spanish not only brought cacao beans from the Americas to our continent, but were also responsible for the spreading through all of their conquered regions too. The first traces of cocoa were found in Ghent in 1635 in the Baudeloo abbey, only many years after Belgium was annexed with the Spanish imperium.

The strange link between Belgium, a small country for way from the equatorial cacao belt, and chocolate is not one to be too proud of at first from a historical point of view. The Belgian chocolate industry took off during the mid 1880’s, when the grasping king Leopold II of Belgium colonized Congo, a territory eighty-six times bigger than Belgium itself.
With the blood spilling colonization and despite the warfare, Belgium entrepreneurship got itself an easy way in to Africa’s cocoa grounds and were able to maintain the cocoa importing connections. With a steady and stable import of raw cacao, local business had the opportunity to find creative and innovative ways to develop chocolate products and businesses.

From the beginning of its introduction in Belgium, chocolate was considered a perfect gift. Even before the colonization of Congo, a Belgian company Berwaerts, was the first one to sell chocolate as tablets, pastilles, and figurines since about1840. Also world famous Callebaut was founded in that era, in 1850 by Eugenius Callebaut as a brewery in Wieze, where the company still has its HQ. Other Belgian chocolate companies soon were created and chocolate lovers will recognize a few names amongst Meurisse, Callebaut, Neuhaus, Cote d’Or, Jaques, de Beukelaere, Victoria… all together with lots of small brands that have gone away.

With the 1958 World Expo in Brussels Côte D’Or tempted everyone’s taste buds through a big event, through which Belgium’s reputation in chocolate became even more known worldwide. Especially for the world fair, Cote d’Or launched a brand new product, “Dessert 58″. This was a praliné filled milk chocolate and it was a hit right from the start!

Before we further explore the worlds of “praliné”, chocolates and “pralines”, in a next post I will dive deeper in which contemporary brands are putting Belgium on the map, and how they do so.

Passion 2.0 in Paris, at the Salon du Chocolat

Published on November 1, 2008 in Trips. 0 Comments Tags: Barry Callebaut, Belcolade, Bonnat, Callebaut, Compagnia del Cioccolato, Dominique Persoone, Domori, Michel Cluizel, Paris, Pralus, Salon du Chocolat, sniff, The Chocolate Line, Zaabär.

“Il est 5 heures Paris s’éveille, je n’ai pas sommeil”. It was precisely 5 AM in hometown Antwerp too when my alarm went off, timing was early but I was rise and shine even before my ringer went off. The timing and famous song of Jacques Dutronc couldn’t be more symbolic: going to the Salon in Paris was not only about this infamous chocolate fair itself, it was going back to the city that had me discover and experience the amazing world of pure dark chocolate bars, and moreover the art and craftsmanship required with chocolatiers. Heading back to Paris 10 years after this unforgettable moment, it seems my passion is ready to be unfolded and developed on a new level.

So we are back from Paris and here are some first impressions from this trip to a festive fair, so many things we encountered but only so few means to share this olfactory trip with you!

Together with Alison, an American friend passionate by food, we jumped on the Thalys to arrive at the fair precisely at 10.AM when doors went open. Friendly Noémie from Zaabär got me a complimentary entrance, and this was actually the first time we met in real, after many messages through FaceBook. Early birds, we had all the time and space to start exploring the fair, and decided to first make a helicopter view tour of the Salon, and keep the shopping and business networking in the afternoon.

The fair was more consumer oriented than we’d expected, however this also meant that every participant was doing its utmost best to showcase their chocolate pies and cacao sweets, show off pralines and bars, and this all in attracting stands and seducing environments. Soon we had checked the very chique boot of Michel Cluizel evoking a lot of craftsmanship, the presence of the Compagnia del Cioccolato representing Domori, Maglio and others, Pralus breathing passion, others went for fashion, spotted perfectionist haute couture chocolatiers from Tokyo, and enjoyed watching the Barry Callebaut World Chocolate Masters preparing wonderful sculptures.

In the afternoon we started our “Let’s get serious”-tour and got started shopping not only for ourselves, but also for the “Original Introduction Sampler” that I proposed to friends and fans. More details on that soon!
The numbers of bars and grams raised at record speed now, getting some dozens of bars at many famous and sought-after brands. I noticed correctly that both Domori and Pralus redesigned their packaging, and reworked their offerings. And armed with that and other knowledge, we also took the time to talk a lot about our passion with the people behind those brands, and we were really inspired by many of them. I gathered great stories, a glimp of a real view behind both passion and philosophy of the different ‘cacaofèvier’s’ and chocophiles.

Time swiftly passed by, our bags started groaning and our backs were moaning, but all the enthusiast people we met, the stories they shared, and the passion we all spread, gave us wings. To finish the day I had a short sniff of cacao and mint with Dominique Persoone from The Chocolate Line, which is a weird experience but you should try yourself too. And from Cluizel I got some original cacao beans of each of his plantations.

An exhausting but wonderful, inspiring and above all encouraging day to move on with Choqoa.com.